The present invention generally relates to monitoring and advising consumers of their outstanding credit balance by category of debt, and more particularly to an on-line method and system for monitoring and reporting unused available credit by category of debt.
Traditionally the typical method for obtaining one's credit information was to request a credit report from a credit reporting bureau through various sources, and provide identifying proof of identity. However, credit reports do not analyze, calculate, summarize and compile the total debts owed for each debt category, the total amount of unused available credit for each debt category and the total minimum payments due for a given time period for each debt category. Also, determining and compiling these amounts manually is a time consuming process that requires an individual to obtain an amount from each particular credit grantor, for example an amount from each credit card company, mortgage lender, etc. To monitor changes in the amounts of unused available credit manually as reported to a credit bureau requires an individual to periodically purchase additional credit reports and manually determine the amounts of unused available credit for each subsequent credit report or contact each credit grantor individually. Moreover, the content within the credit report can be difficult to understand as it is not summarized and thus is not in the most presentable format for an individual to quickly understand the amount of unused credit that is available. Nor is a credit report provided automatically on a periodic basis such as a bank account or even credit card statements, thus not keeping the consumer informed of total credit debts owed by debt category or amounts available by debt category.